Springsteen And Costello Are Worth It

Music - SOUNDBOARD

Tickets To See The Boss, Especially, Aren't Cheap. But You'll Get What You Paid For.

August 16, 2002|By Jim Abbott, Sentinel Columnist

Is $75 too much for the Boss?

More than one person this week told me that price is too steep to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Nov. 21 at the TD Waterhouse Centre.

That's an increase from $67.50 for most seats at Springsteen's E Street reunion show two years ago in Orlando. Tickets behind the stage for that one were in the mid-$30s.

This time, even those seats are $75, which might explain why there were several thousand of them still available this week after last weekend's initial frenzy.

I'd still pay $75 to see this show, especially when you'd pay twice that much to see Paul McCartney or up to three times as much for Madonna. Typically, Springsteen gives something back by supporting local food banks or community-oriented programs, though a tour publicist wasn't aware if that was happening this time around.

For concert tickets, it seems like $40 is the dividing line between reasonable and ridiculous. If you know someone willing to pay $58.50 to see Kenny Loggins Nov. 20 at Hard Rock Live, try to sell them some Arizona swampland immediately.

By comparison, the upcoming Hard Rock concert by the fabulous Elvis Costello qualifies as a bargain.

The high ticket price for Costello's Nov. 1 show at Hard Rock Live is $42.50, which is a little more than half the price of most seats at Britney Spears' "Incomprehensible Noise" tour (as I call it) last month at the arena.

I didn't see Costello's last show in Orlando, in 1999, though I heard on good authority that it was a lengthy and transcendent performance.

But I was at Carr Performing Arts Centre in the early 1980s when Costello and the Attractions detonated a New Wave blast that ranks among the best concerts I've ever seen.

Costello has evolved considerably since then, taking uneven side trips with the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach and Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter on the way to this year's When I Was Cruel.

The album is a triumphant return to form that suggests a concert that likely will be among the year's highlights.

In Orlando, it's popular to whine about the big-name shows that don't stop -- Madonna, Janet Jackson, Aerosmith, Paul McCartney.

If you don't take the chance to see Costello and Springsteen, quit complaining.

MULLET REVIVAL

Musicians are so insecure.

Take James Buell, leader of Orlando's Bithlo Mullet Revival, a band that hopes to stretch beyond its mullet wigs and orange Speedos.

(How's that for an ugly mental image?)

Even as the band was climbing toward the top of a battle of the bands this week on 104.1 FM (WTKS)'s Monsters of the Midday, Buell was fretting that no one would show for BMR's Monday show at the Social.

"I gave out about 4,000 fliers at the Warped Tour, but it's a Monday night, you know,'' Buell says. "I'm worried that only 50 people will be there."

In keeping with BMR's cutting sense of humor, Buell and his bandmates submitted a song called "Monsters Suck" for the radio station contest.

"It's all about how they aren't any good, and we're just using them to further our career,'' Buell says.

The truth behind the joke is that Buell is constantly hustling to transform BMR from a local novelty into something with national potential. That includes discussions with independent labels, including Gainesville's Fueled by Ramen, about making an album from the band's homemade demo disc.

"In college, we played places for maybe 30 people; now we get 150 or 200 kids. I think it would work on a national level, at least as a a one-hit wonder. Look at Insane Clown Posse; they aren't Mozart, but they were able to laugh all the way to the bank."

Doors open at 7 p.m. for Monday's show. Admission: $5.

ODDS AND ENDS

It took a week, but Mix 105.1 FM (WOMX)'s Jeff Cushman called back to say that the station is playing Springsteen's new single "The Rising" about 20 times a week, so that's better than nothing. . . .

Today is the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, which NBC will celebrate with a prime-time showing of Loving You (1957), the King's second feature film. It airs at 8 p.m. Saturday on WESH-Channel 2.

LOVE LETTERS

All the songs sound the same at Oasis concerts? Maybe your ears don't work. Cover Elvis or some new beer if it makes you happy, but leave the concerts to someone else.

Paul

In the story about Amy Steinberg, you mentioned the mega success of Matchbox Twenty and the "fizzle" of 7M3 and Steve Burry. Yes, these are two examples of bands that are miles off the radar of the pop music machine. But, honestly, these are the "good guys." Bands with talent and dedication . . . Comparing them to Matchbox's success isn't fair.

Thanks,

Chris Ramsey

I just wanted to tell you how much I agree with you concerning your article Friday about the lack of airplay for Bruce Springsteen.

The Orlando radio stations are really missing the 30 to 45-plus age market which is usually the group financially more secure and upwardly mobile than the younger market. I used to live in the Chicago area, and that city does have a radio station that targets this group -- the station is WXRT.